The Base United and Yun Che Got Caught Again
It was imperative to choose the base commander in spite of Wei Kan and Wang Wei's opposition, because not only other bases but also their own armies were in need of the formulas of the antidote and the nutrient. Wei Kan and Wang Wei's stall over the election would just cause panic among the armies. Like Yun Che said, why wouldn't the soldiers cherish their lives since they could just live once as human beings?
But within a week, Wei Kan and Wang Wei budged. Therefore, the post of the base commander still went to Mo Wenyang in the end. In the name of the base commander, Mo Wenyang forcibly pulled down the forts of the three armies and rearranged the armies during the relocation of the base. The Mo Army, the Wang Army and the Wei Army no longer existed and were integrated into the Southwest Army. Xing Tianlan had rejected the post of the base commander but not the new army commander of the Southwest. As for the commissar, it could only go to Mo Jiancheng. Wei Kan and Wang Wei, figurehead assistant commanders, were deprived of all rights and had no charge of armies. As long as they stuck to their last, they were still in the management hierarchy; otherwise, they would have to either leave or be killed.
The relocation of the base completed in mid-November. All people moved to the urban area, except those from Chaoyang Community, Peak Community, Loser Squad and Joy Squad. Meanwhile, Chaoyang and Peak enclosed the whole Yonghe Town. While the armies focused on turning the lands into the plantable ones, Yun Che and Xing Feng respectively reconstructed Yonghe Town and Section C which was renamed now as Chaoyang-Peak Community because it was the private property of Chaoyang and Peak.
Yun Che was responsible for the reconstruction of Chaoyang-Peak Community, for the pregnancy made it difficult for him to go out. He had the walls built around the whole community, the bone-dissolving blood vines planted on both sides of the walls and only one big iron gate, the entrance to the urban area, built. Inside the community, all houses were constructed near the original Chaoyang Community, a makeshift workshop was built in a small area, and other installations were planned to be built in the rest area in the future.
At the same time, the formulas of the antidote and the nutrient were shared at the price of 1 million low-level crystal nuclei each, according to the negotiation between Mo Wenyang and all major bases in the nation. The crystal nuclei would be delivered by the specific couriers from each base to Chaoyang-Peak Community. It was not Mo Wenyang's request that they should pay the crystal nuclei before they received the formulas. But the Southwest Base would reject to communicate and share anything good with whoever shamelessly didn't fulfill the commitment.
"Yun Che is so good at buying people off."
In the Urban Base, Wang Guoan said genuinely, who entered Wang Wei's room with an announcement. Mo Wenyang was not a mean person. After the rearrangement of the three armies, he still valued everyone including Wang Wei's cousin Wang Guoan, without changing their positions, except Wang Wei, Wei Kan and their commissar. On this point alone, Wang Guoan had to admit that Mo Wenyang was indeed a good leader who deserved everyone's respect. Moreover, Xing Feng and Yun Che constantly bought people off for him to accumulate the will of the people. All this helped Mo Wenyang consolidate his position as the base commander.
"What did he do again?"
Wang Wei, being too weak, leaned against the headboard. Ever since what happened to Jiang Qi, Wang Wei had been ill in bed. What was worse, his military power was stripped off, which depressed him more. Therefore, he couldn't leave his bed till now. Theoretically, he shouldn't be so fragile as a superfunction possessor. According to the doctor's diagnosis, Wang Wei's illness had got nothing to do with his superfunction or stamina but his psychological problem. If he couldn't open up, even god couldn't save him.
"Well, he built a quilt and clothes processing factory and is going to hire ordinary survivors from the base."
Wang Guoan passed the announcement to Wang Wei. With the help of Yun Che, no wonder Mo Wenyang was the final winner.
"When we still limited our focus on the superfunction possessors, he already thought about running a school. When Senior Wei and I are still upset about the loss of military power, he starts to work on the food and clothing problems of ordinary people. Guoan, that is why you persuaded me to abandon the military power, isn't it?"
Wang Wei opened the announcement and read it. He spat out a mouthful of turbid air heavily. A man aged over 40, who was in the army for decades, was defeated by some young men in their twenties in the end. It would definitely be a lie to say that Wang Wei didn't feel depressed. But Yun Che's measures just wore him down. The future was very likely the world of the young men.
"Yes, it is."
Confronting his eyes, Wang Guoan didn't mean to avoid them. "Wei, I know you feel wronged. Although we're not brothers, you are nearly 20 years older than me and have treated me as a real little brother. In my heart, you're also my elder brother. To be frank with you, I felt very exhausted before and even wanted to leave here, throwing everything behind. I know it's after the doomsday now and that life is no longer the same as that in the age of peace. But we're soldiers. During the age of peace, we only served in flood disasters; during the wars, we must shelter people from gunfire in front. But now, how come we can't block the invasion of the zombies? How come we just think about how to take over power and take charge of the base instead?"
"Wei, have you thought about why we were defeated by Mo Wenyang? That's because we fought for power at the cost of hurting our soldiers but they always put their own people and the survivors in the base on top priority and looked at the big picture every time. Let me give you a recent example of the rat plague and the snow disaster. Yun Che and Xing Feng risked to search for the bone-dissolving blood vines in the mountain and planned to use them to fend off invisible superfunction possessors of the Wei Army. However, they contributed the vines without demur for the safety of the base. At the beginning of the snow disaster, Mo Wenyang had already had the thick clothes and quilts prepared for soldiers moved to Section E and F. But when we asked Yun Che for the heating installations, they didn't even frown and never asked the installations back after the the disaster. The installations for hundreds of thousands of people are worth quite a large amount of money. They are just an ordinary superfunction squad but they did something so generous for the sake of the survivors. What about us? What good deeds have we done for the survivors since the very beginning?"
"Apart from those big deeds, the Mo Army has also done small deeds for the survivors, and Chaoyang and Peak have led the superfunction squads together to perform some challenging missions. Wei, there are reasons for our loss. I believe, under their leadership, the Southwest Base is bound to become the strongest and safest base in the whole nation."
Those words came from the bottom of Wang Guoan's heart. With a different standpoint, he hadn't dare to say that he approved of Yun Che, Xing Feng and Mo Wenyang, in case it would take down his own people. But now, the centralization of the base got rid of his worries. More importantly, he hoped his words could open Wang Wei's heart and dragged him out of the pain of losing his glory and military power and that Wang Wei could cheer up and assist Mo Wenyang in the management of the Southwest Base and their home.
Neither of the cousins noticed that Wei Kan and the soldiers who looked gloomy stood as stiff as stones outdoors. Originally, Wei Kan intended to visit Wang Wei and take this chance to negotiate with him about seizing back power. Wei Kan didn't expect to hear such words from Wang Guoan. Wei Kan immediately couldn't help asking himself whether it was really his wish to seize back power and whether he lived up to his military rank. Were Chinese generals supposed to be so narrow-minded? They had the chance to fight for power but just lost in the end. Couldn't they even afford to lose?
"Please extend my greetings to your senior officer. Let's go back."
Upon saying that, Wei Kan turned around and strode away with a sullen face. The adjutant who showed them here watched their receding backs deeply. Quite a moment later, he stood at attention and made a standard military solute to the empty passage, for he realized that Senior Officer Wei and their senior officer would make a decision and that the Southwest Base would be better and better.
What happened here couldn't be kept from Yun Che. After he asked Mo Wenyang to deliver the announcement, Yun Che ordered Leng Yehan to buy some buses when going out on duties. The buses could facilitate the commute of workers and kindergarten kids. The drivers would be recruited from the ordinary survivors. The community wouldn't give people food or other things for free, for which people had to trade with labor work. That was very fair!
"Where did you go?"
Seeing Yun Che and Chenchen getting off Eagle King, Yun Yao glowered at them. Originally, she had expected Chenchen to supervise Yun Che. However, Chenchen had been bought off unconsciously. Everyday, Yun Che did nothing, except for drinking soup, under the supervision of Chenchen. The two of them flew to different places by Eagle King whenever Yun Yao wasn't around them. There hadn't been a single pregnant person like him ever.
"Mom, Uncle Che took me to Uncle Cheng today."
Chenchen naturally sold his uncle out, who ran to his mother and threw his arms around her leg, while Yun Che shook his head resignedly who got caught again when going out for fun. Before being scolded by his sister, Yun Che said, "Well, some greenhouses are completed and I irrigated there."
At present, only 50% of the greenhouses in Yonghe Town were completed while the rest was still undergoing the construction. Ordinary people were hired to build the greenhouses and sow the seeds, which must be done by human beings. The superfunction possessors of earth from both squads still needed to help to reinforce the walls and to fend off the zombies. Yun Cheng was also there to help. As for Leng Yehan, he had learned to refine tools in the space lately. Thus, Yun Cheng was temporarily taken care of by Xing Feng. Every time before Yun Cheng left home, Yun Che and Leng Yehan told him to listen to Xing Feng and not to leave the community in case of accidents. After all, Yun Cheng was a zombie and anything beyond their control could happen to him.
"How dare you go around all the time! It's the fourth month already. Look, how thin you are! What if you starve my little niece?"
Yun Che got pregnant in late July, so the fetus was 4 months old till now in late October. But Yun Che's tummy was still so plain that he didn't look like a pregnant man at all. Even though he was fed with various kinds of nutritious soup, he hadn't put on any weight, which made people jealous and also worried that the baby would be born unhealthy. But none of them had the experience of attending to a pregnant man.
"How could he be hungry? Don't you see that I eat many fruits every day? But he hates the ordinary fruits and insists on eating the fruits from the space. What trouble he is!"
He was indeed! Yun Che never had the horrible pregnancy reaction like other pregnant women. But if he couldn't take in enough energy for a day, his body would have a strong reaction. He would either vomit or be out of spirits. So he had to either eat two fruits or take in two crystal nuclei to recover. Sometimes, he felt he was more like a zombie than Cheng.